18+ / A person that writes and draws sometimes. / Expect writing and art resources, cute things, and a butt ton of Caster. Thank you for visiting and have a good day! Art Tag / Writing Tag / Creation Blog / What the heck is Caster?
Just a PSA in case anyone ever has to deal with this since Tumblr has been especially pressing the Delete-Your-Whole-Account-button these days(I know like 4 other people that got their Tumblr account randomly deleted?):
My account was just kinda quietly deleted earlier this month before my trip to Japan and after sending in support-messages to try and get it back, they just ignored all of my support-requests, but today I finally got it back after sending in a different support-request yesterday!
I notice what worked for me was not using the Terminated Account category on tumblr.com/support but instead using Tumblr Domains one. That way, the issue gets sent directly to Tumblr and not through their ZenDesk service. You'll know which one you are sending it to for-sure since the confirmation-email you get after sending your support request should say [email protected] rather than [email protected].
her name is Zoë Bread and she doesn’t show her face, and she’s a British artist whose videos are basically her fucking with people in harmless ways - like, asking retail workers if they want an “official” picture of King Charles that is in fact a cartoon and filming their bewilderment (the person is never in the video; she films the floor and her shoes while she’s doing this). she also calls up companies who have stuff like “call us to talk about [X]!” written on their products to see if they’ll really talk to her about [X] and if the person at the call centre doesn’t know (“full unedited silence” is a feature in most of her videos), she will dig and dig until she finds someone who can. or, until she gets bored, which. fair. can’t fault that.
I’m currently trying to get a member of the british peerage to give me £50 because we’re distant cousins. I appreciate her.
she travels around for these videos and one day she went to Manchester and parked on a road called Collier Street.
Collier Street has (or had, at the time) another car park at the end of it - the SIP car park. SIP is a private company that runs these. the signage on Collier Street indicated that the payment machine there was where you’re supposed to pay, so Zoë and a fuckload of other people assumed that that was where you got the tickets. Zoë put it on her car and went about fucking with whoever she decided to confuse today
she gets back to her car, has a parking ticket, and is confused
again - she paid for a ticket. she wasn’t trying to get out of paying.
because she’d bought a ticket from the machine that the SIP car park instead of the council run machine that is actually on a different road, she’d been ticketed. and, rightly so, she contests it and the person at the council says that the rules are the rules and there’s clear signage
Zoë: the signage is misleading
council: we don’t believe it is
Zoë: well, I was misled
council: we believe the signage is adequate
Zoë, being Zoë, doesn’t agree with this. she pulls up literal years’ worth of data on the history of that sign, the parking on the road, and the number of people who got ticketed. very early on, she says she’s not actually bothered about her own ticket, but she’s upset that people are being caught out and sees that it’s a money-making scheme for the council. she speaks to parking wardens, who mostly seem to agree that the signage is misleading. she has data. she calls them back. same response.
Zoë, being an artist, makes her own sign. which she puts up below the official one. and then she waits to see how long it is before it’s taken down.
[note: there was a side quest sometime during this - it went on for months - where she put cones in the parking spaces. the council moved them onto the pavement/sidewalk. this made it inaccessible for wheelchair users, people with prams, other people who can’t just move around them, which is illegal. so she called the council repeatedly to complain about the cones and monitored them until they were moved. this took ages - we are talking weeks.]
Zoë’s sign gets taken down.
the signpost it was attached to, with the misleading sign, becomes a point of pilgrimage for British people who appreciate a good bit of humour with the intent of bullying the local government. it is COVERED in stickers.
her sign is taken down. the sign is not changed. more people get tickets.
[there was a second side quest, where Zoë discovers that the SIP car park - the private one - doesn’t have planning permission. she doesn’t let this slide.]
not happy with this, Zoë calls in to the local radio station. which has a Q&A with Andy Burnham. the Mayor of Manchester. she calls in and asks him about this. Andy Burnham says he’s taking her concern into consideration and will look into it, and get back to her if she calls in next week.
she’s not put through next week.
she contacts his office.
no response.
she calls in again and brings it up.
[all this is happening while she’s repeatedly ringing the council to ask them about it]
she has gone from “harmless tiktok prankster” to “calling out government incompetence”. with a MASSIVE platform.
eventually, after her being interviewed by the BBC, Manchester City Council puts up a sign saying where the actual car park for Collier Street is (there is a running bit where a council worker misheard her and thought she said “Collyhurst Street”, which to my knowledge does not exist. Zoë now exclusively refers to it as that, including in her radio appearance and on her phone calls)
she isn’t done. she now has a petition to force the government to change vague signage. the government said no, all their signage is adequate. she’s now fighting with them. in one of her most recent videos, she was on the phone with the House of Commons enquiry department trying to figure out how to contest it. she’s brilliant.
anyway, this is why the art of Fucking About must never be lost. big up Zoë
As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse. It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms
As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable. As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.
Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.
⁂
Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free
Most readers aren't aware, but this is exactly what happens when you buy an ebook on Amazon. Or Kobo. Or B&N. You have a limited license to read that book on that platform's app as long as whoever published that book on that platform still agrees to release work there. These licenses can be revoked at any time and the store will yank that book right out of your kindle when they are.
This is exactly why I sell direct on my webstore. You get a download for the book you purchased, and BookFunnel will help you put it on whatever app is most convenient for you (want to read it on Kindle or your Kobo reader? Sweet, have at it). But you can ALSO download the file directly to your hard drive. You can keep that .epub or .PDF on your hard drive where no one else can reach in and yoink it back out because two businesses (mine and Amazon) came to a disagreement.
I sell direct because I want my readers to know me, to come to me, and to rely on me--not some conglomerate company who considers you Support Ticket Number 6673927.
I wrote the book. I formatted the book. I have the rights to the book. And I have the right to GIVE YOU the book when you pay for it, not just license it to you as long as it's convenient.
Many many indie authors are starting to sell their books direct. Look up your favorites. Buy direct. Keep your library. OWN your library. You bought it, it's yours.
Errata: I mistakenly listed Smashwords as a retailer that will snatch your book back, but they actually let you download files directly and have done the whole time they've ever existed. We stan Smashwords in this house.
MARCILLE: So I was wondering...what kind of person is your wife?
ESPRIT DE CORPS (Easy: Success): She'll never be satisfied with bare minimum answers. She wants to know more about you, to connect with you on a genuine interpersonal level.
LOGIC (Easy: Failure): This is obviously not what you want. You are an impenetrable fortress of solitude, and she should respect that.
PAIN THRESHOLD: Also, it's an embarrassing subject.
AUTHORITY (Medium: Success): Well fuck that- Chilchuck Tims does NOT get embarrassed, especially not in front of a mere Wöman. You absolutely cannot tell her the real truth about your marriage and how it ended. It would harm your professional reputation. You've got to redirect this line of questioning.
1. "I'd rather not talk about my personal life on the clock."
2. [Drama- Legendary 14] "What about YOUR love life, Marcille? Have you met any cute boys lately? Tell me about all the cute BOYS you're into, Marcille."
3. Simply ignore her question and hope she doesn't ask it again.
4. [Suggestion- Challenging 12] Lie convincingly about a less embarrassing situation than your wife leaving you and moving in with your daughter. It's very important that whatever lie you come up with is less interesting than the real story, and puts you in a good light to protect your reputation and maintain your professionalism.
firefox just started doing this too so remember kids if you want to stream things like netflix or hulu over discord without the video being blacked out you just have to disable hardware acceleration in your browser settings!
Since I'm looking at the comments and seeing a lot of people asking what hardware acceleration is and getting wildly incorrect answers, here you go. This is what hardware acceleration is. It's not DRM, and it's not placing a limit on memory usage (unless you have weird definitions for both "memory" and "placing a limit").
This is what hardware acceleration is:
"Do you just have a graphic for this on hand at all times?"
Let’s make this post even longer because I have even more images saved. Next up, we got:
Tsutsumagushi Disease
Chikungunya Fever!
MERS
Pertussis (whooping cough) with a horrifying (almost body horror) headpiece and flute
Dengue Fever, the image of which literally made me stop breathing for a moment when I first saw it
Japanese Encephalitis (as... idols, maybe?)
And Zika Virus (so pretty! and for what???)
And some higher res images of the ones from the video (Legionnaires’ Disease, Viral Gastroenteritis, and Rubella). Unfortunately, I could not fit Rabies because of the image limit.
Lyme disease also has an outfit that when viewed from above would be a bullseye shape, which is a characteristic first symptom of the disease visible on the skin around the site of the bite.
OK, so I've seen this image set before, and it is AMAZING! But it's only the recent discussion that made me realize that people may not be understanding many of the visual references in these images. So... with no further ado...
An epidemiologist's guide to the Disease Idol covers...
Hepatitis: Boy band of 5 guys for the 5 types of viral hepatitis A, B, C, D & E. I think Hep A might be the blond with his tongue out, since A can be passed by contaminated food. The idol boy on the lower right is probably Hep C as he has a syringe tattoo and pierced ears. The boy at 12 o’clock also has a pin of three syringes and headphones, maybe he’s Hep B (which can cause hearing loss? Also, one idol has a red spider angioma tattoo. All of them have slightly jaundiced eyes, pointing to the liver damage of chronic hepatitis.
Syphilis: A little easier to decode - it’s a sexually transmitted disease (hot girl, apple symptom of temptation) and causes chancre sores and a red spotty rash.
Chicken pox & Shingles: Fun fact - chicken pox and shingles are caused by the same virus, the varicella zoster virus! Most anyone older than about 30 probably knows about the chicken pox rash. It’s spotty, itchy and forms blisters which open up like the eyelets on the little girls’ mesh gloves. But, after the infection, the virus can live dormant in your nerve cells only to reactivate as shingles, an intensely painful red rash that causes large areas of red discoloration, like around the boy’s eyes, and I think the snake on his sweater might represent the dormant virus. If you had chicken pox as a kid getting the shingles vaccine when you turn 50 can prevent shingles!
Plague, AKA The Black Death: This one is basically a bunch of European symbols that don’t have a whole lot to do with plague, aside from the gangrenous fingers, which are a late stage symptom. Can’t tell from the drawing, but plague is spread by fleas.
Influenza: The flu really is a fuckboi! Influenza travels the world, alternating between the global south and the global north, picking up lots of mutations as it goes. The hand tattoos represent the three main types: A, B and C. We normally vaccinate against two strains of influenza A and one or two strains of influenza B, and the vaccine has to be updated every year because they’re so promiscuous. (Also, if you look at him up close, he looks so fucking tired behind those eyes, and fatigue is a major symptom.)
Measles: Another spotty rash. However, this one can cause blindness and deafness in children, both represented in the designs on his shirt and jacket. Vaccine preventable!
Lyme disease: The bullseye visual image was noted above, so I’ll just also mention that her mech is a tick and the doohickies in her ponytails look like the twists of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. And our girl here is wearing sturdy boots and white stockings, both that can help protect you from ticks, or help you notice them quickly.
COVID-19: Sits on a throne that looks like the COVID-19 virus, but the spike proteins end in hands that are using phones and handheld computers, representing how we all got through lockdown. (Note this was an October 2020 cover.) I’m not sure if the crown covering the nose is supposed to represent the loss of smell?
Tsutsugamushi disease: I actually didn’t know what this is, the internet tells me it’s a form of typhus, but not a rickettsia. Huh. 🤷♂️
Chikungunya: This is a mosquito borne disease that is notable for causing joint pain, which can become chronic. Here it’s reprinted by skeletal spines and arms, places where joints can develop long term bursitis or arthritis; the idol’s high heels are made of bones as well. It can also cause a patchy rash, as represented on the her dress.
MERS: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome was the second major coronavirus disease (between SARS COV-1 and COVID-19/SARS COV-2. First discovered in Saudi Arabia and mostly occurring on the Arabian Peninsula, it is represented here by a veiled lady, which a crown representing the “corona” of a coronavirus. While SARS COV-1 died out, cases of MERS continue to occasionally occur, the virus doesn’t spread very easily person-to-person, but it does have an animal reservoir in camels.
Pertussis: The body horror headpiece here is supposed to represent the alveoli of the lungs, inflamed and clogged with fluid. The flute is because of the high pitched wheeze of a child with pertussis struggling to breath. Pertussis kills babies! If you’re around babies or young children, please get vaccinated for their sake! (And for yours, the severe coughing can cause vomiting and broken ribs even in adults.)
Dengue: OK, so the visual similarity to Aedes albopictus has been noted above. But what’s with the datura here? She’s holding a datura and has another tattooed on her arm. I can’t figure out the connection, what am I missing? Something about atropine maybe?
Japanese Encephalitis: Don’t actually know what this is about, other than the balls they’re holding clearly represent the tight ball shape of the JEV. Not sure why this is a three girl group. But Japanese encephalitis does some nasty things to your brain for sure.
Zika: Again it’s just the mosquito here. I’m actually glad they didn’t get any deeper into a representation of Zika’s worst effects on the body because I feel like it would be pretty insensitive. There’s still a sizable cohort of Brazilian children with profound disabilities from Zika.
Legionnaire’s disease: Our dandy here must have been attending some kind of conference; Legionaries disease was discovered after a large outbreak at an American Legion convention in 1976. You can see some kind of sink contraption behind him - this is because Legionnaires is usually spread by inhaling aerosolized droplets of contaminated water.
Viral Gastroenteritis: I got nothing. All I can make of this guy is that maybe he got his abs by shitting his guts out and now he needs a boba drink to hydrate. IDK man…
Rubella: Another gentleman covered in red spots. Electron microscopy of the rubella virus does look like the little clustered seeds of the pomegranate he’s holding. The cherub on his pendant and in the background probably represent miscarried babies as rubella is quite dangerous during pregnancy.
Rabies: Is this dude the reason for that weird tumblr rabies fad? Anyway, this cover is a masterpiece, his jacket has spikes representing the spiky virus envelope, the background is people in the masks of reservoir species for rabies all playing violin, and the whole thing takes place on flooring that looks like brain tissue, where rabies causes a devastating encephalitis. If you have been bitten by an animal that could have been rabid - GET TREATMENT FAST! Post exposure vaccination is 100% successful at preventing rabies, but once you have started to get symptoms there is no going back. Rabies is inevitably fatal. But Tumblr sure loves themselves a white haired Twink.
ok but roadrunners are so cool, I can seldom think of a bird more velociraptor-like
more people need to know they’re real because look at this, this is some real walking with dinosaurs shit
they have powerful legs allowing them to run up to 20mph and leap to impressive heights with ease
they are extremely swift and fearless, quick enough to take down a sizable rattlesnake and other large prey animals like lizards and mice
they have several unique adaptations to thermoregulate, such as the dark patch of feathers on their back which acts as a solar panel to absorb heat, or its crest that either releases or absorbs heat by exposing its skin
they have these long, stiff tailfeathers that they use as a counterbalance when running, very reminiscent of the rod-like tail of a dromaeosaur
and they are capable of bursts of flight/gliding with incredibly beautiful plumage
I’m genuinely shocked how many people think they’re made up, they are real and they are AWESOME
at my job we have to go through a training program that teaches us the library of congress classification system, and when i was first being trained my boss started to boot it up and she gave me a really anxious and guilty look and said “listen, i’m really sorry in advance, there’s nothing i can do about this, just…. just try to get through it” and i was like lol what’s she talking about and then the program loaded and i was greeted with a deliriously funny-looking photoshopped wizard with glowing eyes pointing at some intro message like “AH YES, JUST AS THE PROPHECY FORETOLD… APPRENTICE, YOU COME AT A TIME OF MOST DIRE NEED… YOU MUST LEARN OUR WAYS” and my boss just looked at me helplessly and was like “i’m so sorry. it’s like two hours long.”
thankfully it wasn’t an elaborate fever dream and i have found screenshots
Wild parrots tend to fly in flocks, but when kept as single pets, they may become lonely and bored
Once the birds had learned how to initiate video interactions, the second phase of the experiment could begin. In this “open call” period, the 15 participating birds could make calls freely; they also got to choose which bird to dial up. Over the next two months, pet parrots made 147 deliberate video calls to other birds. Their owners took detailed notes about the calls and recorded more than 1,000 hours of video footage that the researchers analyzed.
[ id: screenshot from the linked article: "Two weak, older macaws, for example, became very close and even called out to one another "Hi! Come here! Hello!" from their respective screens" followed by a fucked up crying emoji man. /end id ]
